Another McGovern takes on a war

[unhappycamper]

Representative James McGovern and a poster on his mentor, Senator George McGovern.


Another McGovern takes on a war
By Michael Kranish
Globe Staff / December 5, 2009

WASHINGTON - Representative James P. McGovern, a political activist since he was a schoolboy in Worcester, walked into his congressional office yesterday and proudly pointed to a 1972 presidential campaign poster on his wall: “We’ve been misled too often. Demand Truth. George McGovern.’’

It was a moment that brought Jim McGovern full circle. As a seventh-grader during the Vietnam War, he passed out antiwar campaign literature for the former South Dakota senator, and as a college student he interned in the senator’s Washington office.

Now the Massachusetts Democrat, a 50-year-old whose parents still own a liquor store in Worcester, is assuming his mentor’s mantle in more than name (they are not related). He has become one of the most outspoken opponents to President Obama’s Afghanistan strategy, putting forward proposals to cut off funding for the 30,000 additional troops Obama plans to send there and to demand a clear-cut exit strategy.

McGovern said he has no qualms about taking on Obama. Even those with the potential to be “great presidents’’ make mistakes, he said. “There is going to be a fight on this. The question is whether we get it sooner or later.’’

~snip~

“McGovern was right’’ about Vietnam, the congressman said of the former presidential candidate. And he believes that he will be proven right about Afghanistan.


Rest of article at: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2009/12/05/another_mcgovern_takes_on_a_war/